Finishing Up for the Year

2 months ago, frustrated because I couldn't get a day of vacation approved at work, I randomly signed up for vacation on November 9.  Didn't have a thing planned.  Just simply wanted a day of vaca.  

So we loaded up and took the scenic route to Too.  The two photos above were taken earlier in the fall, in October.  The trees are not nearly as pretty today as they were in the pics but we took the back roads and wandered our way to Too though Ringgold County, Lamoni and across on the Pleasanton Road to Mo.  We checked out the cabins and winterized the washer with the Instructions Himself got from the manufacturer. (yes, you use antifreeze in it, just like a toilet or sink drain.)  I put the wasp killer jar inside so it wouldn't take on any water, freeze and break.  We picked up a last item or two, moved the picnic table, re-locked the doors and headed home.  But not directly home as we wandered on over to Mt Moriah. 

I am so disappointed in the pic of the week old piglets.  I want to go back and use my camera instead of the phone.  These little darlings are adorable!  They are being pastured, rather than being raised in a barn like in the old days when I was a kid.    The piglets were out in the fresh air and the sunshine --  giving "cute" a new meaning.  Of course, they will end up on someones plate in a few years but meanwhile they are happy and free. 

The pigs are on the farm of Tim and Maryanna just down the road south and west of III.  These folks were our neighbors at III and Tim and his Amish helpers (and include Himself in the Amish helper category : )  built the big cabin.  Tim and Maryanna have raised and homeschooled a daughter who is in nursing school in St. Joseph and their son is a senior this year.  They used to travel the midwest in an RV helping to build churches.  They are now trying to be homesteaders and to live off the land growing vegetables in a greenhouse, raising pigs.  They have 180 chickens and sell eggs to the Amish (who sell the eggs from their Amish Country stores).  They have started a shiitake mushroom patch in their timber and Maryanna canned 32 pints (quart?) this summer.  They may or may not raise vegetables next year to take to the Kansas City Farmers Market.  The answer to that depends on which adult you ask. 

I found the tour of the farmstead and metal fabricating shop extremely interesting.  I like the idea of self-sustainability and re-purposing.  I like the whole idea of raising organic vegetables, pigs and chickens and living off the land.  I do. 

I have decided it is best that the piglet photo didn't come out so good.  If you could see how really cute and adorable they are, you would all run out and find a little piglet to keep at home!  see . . . better you don't go do that. 

After our visit and tour, we wandered our way back home -- to Bethany for a sandwich, north and then west thru Harrison Co and Worth Co, Mo through the old towns of Hatfield and Allendale.  Then again, taking the backroads thru Mt Ayr and Diagonal to slide on home before dark.  It was a good day. 

The photo above is just to let you all know that I have finally found a way that I can make me a Root / Storm cellar at Too.  I can do it this way!  I wasn't sure I would be able to dig down, get the floor and walls in and lay my door at a slant, etc . . . blah blah like in the standard old farmstead cellar of yore.  But this I can do!  So I'll research what vents and hardware I need, figure out the size of the door and before we all know it, I'll have us a storm cellar!  Oh, I mean root cellar.                                  

                                                                   You all come back . . .